Florida Keys Weather

Yes, We Do Have Seasons!

Florida Keys weather is known to be beautiful all year, with copious amounts of sunshine just about every day. Folks from northern states know they can book a trip to the Florida Keys in January and it’ll be pretty much as warm as a summer day back home. With year-round sunshine, how does Florida Keys weather get seasons, you ask? How do you get a variation on sunshine? The Florida Keys have moderate temperatures much of the year, with tropical breezes cooling us down in summertime. We’re cooler than Miami because we are islands and the breezes we catch, along with the lesser degree of congestion, cars, and pavement, makes us a summertime destination for people from Miami seeking relief from the city heat. With that said, let’s remember that we are still a sub-tropical climate, and it does get hot in summer. Temperatures are in the mid-80s and it’s a little humid June through September.

Winter

Winter weather starts around the end of November and continues right on through March. Temperatures get down to the mid-60s at night, and around 70 F during the day. For Florida Keys weather, this is the coolest season. Winter means clear blue skies, no rain, and windy days, too. Not usually the best snorkel weather, but winter is our tourist season, and tourists don’t seem to mind. Snorkel boats usually include a wetsuit in the package anyway, and wetsuits work really well for keeping you warm in the water. When it’s only in the 60s, some locals get carried away and actually wear puffy winter jackets. Compared to up North, most visitors think the winter weather here is warm and perfect.

Spring

Spring is short, since the cooler winter weather sometimes seems to end abruptly and bam, it’s hot and humid. But there is a Spring season, usually in April and May, when it’s starting to warm up and you give up wearing jeans and long sleeve tops that you get to wear in winter. Spring means Tarpon arrive, while seasonal workers on Duval Street head for more northern tourist towns, where the high season is just getting warmed up. Spring also means there’s an exodus of RVs, and the campgrounds empty out. Folks from Michigan, Idaho, Wisconsin, and other frigid wintery northern climes go back home and enjoy the beautiful weather up there. While the Florida Keys start to lose these segments of the population, the temporary, seasonal people, new ones come to take their place. Once School is out, Floridians who don’t live in here wheel out the boat & trailor, load up the truck, and head for the Florida Keys. Weekends are full of people from Miami and other parts of Florida, while weekdays are a little quieter.

Summer

Summer sees a continuation of families from Florida arriving for the weekend from Miami to enjoy the relatively cooler Florida Keys weather, or angler buddies taking off from work and zipping down to the Keys. Or partiers heading for Key West for a total blowout weekend before they go back to work on Monday. Or groups of women friends down for a weekend of bad fun on Duval Street. June 1 is the official start of the hurricane season, which runs through November 30. Hurricanes seem to really start hitting in August and September, which is the time of the year when the Florida Keys are the most empty, not coincidentally of course! If local business owners take an annual vacation or go away for an extended period of time, this is when they most commonly go. If a business is closed at all during the year, August or September is when you’ll see it happen.

Fall

Fall in the Florida Keys is the one season abour which you could debate the existence. It’s pretty hot right through mid October, and then it cools off a bit, but we can’t really say that too much different happens in Fall, weather-wise. Since the intense part of Hurricane Season straddles the end of Summer and beginning of Fall, perhaps we should have Hurricane Season then right into Winter instead of Fall.